Ferrari’s season ‘not lost’, insists Marchionne

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has refused to give up the title fight following another disastrous grand prix for the Scuderia.

Sebastian Vettel's second DNF in three races means he trails Lewis Hamilton by 59 points with just four races left of the 2017 season.

Ferrari are also 145 points adrift of Mercedes in the World Constructors' Championship, but Marchionne will not completely write off their campaign.

"The season is not lost, there's still all to do," Marchionne told Class CNBC television in New York.

"I won't talk of bad luck, I don't believe in it. The important thing is to not lose the confidence that has brought us so far."

"I‘m delighted with what the team has done and I have tremendous confidence that in the next four races we will be able to close most of the Mercedes gap."

Marchionne conceded the team have overlooked areas such as quality control as it has only become a problem of late, yet he is determined that Ferrari will get to the bottom of their issues.

He said: "It's a problem we've probably ignored over time because it was never of much importance but now we've had at least three occasions where we've really seen the devastating impact on performance. We'll fix it."